And another friendly hi-def hello to our fellow blu-ray geeks. Welcome to the weekly look at our most wanted titles coming to blu-ray and/or 4K Ultra HD for the week of April 23, 2019.
Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment gets our Most Wanted list this week kicked off in classic style with the 40th anniversary celebration of director Ridley Scott's film Alien, with a brand new 4K blu-ray release that comes in a Best Buy Exclusive Steelbook. The release features a new 4K restoration of the film which was completed in 2018 by 20th Century Fox and supervised by Ridley Scott himself. This should be a day one purchase for both Alien fans and hi-def aficionados.
Next up is Disney/Marvel which hits us with a couple of 4K Ultra HD editions in the form of Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War, both of which come in beautifully packaged Best Buy Exclusive Steelbook editions. Yes, it is double and triple dipping, and no we don't care. Take our money, now. {googleads}
Another title on our most wanted list this week is Robert Eggers' psychological thriller The Witch that features a 4K UHD Dolby vision HDR presentation of the film. Black Phillip in 4K? Hell yes!
Two new film's hitting home video for the first time are the Nicole Kidman action/thriller Destroyer which gets a Blu-ray + DVD + Digital HD edition with a couple of audio commentaries, a featurette, and a still gallery and the psychological thriller Escape Room which features a Blu-ray + DVD + Digital HD edition with an alternate opening , a handful of deleted scenes, and four featurettes. Though it did receive a Golden Globe nomination for Nicole Kidman's performance and some nice attention in precursor voting before the Oscars, Destroyer was largely an overlooked gem that gets our attention in hi-def this week.
Kino Lorber is putting out on blu-ray this week, three classic catalog titles. The Virgil Vogel creature classic The Land Unknown comes with a Tom Weaver commentary and a handful of features, while Joe Mays' adaptation of the Nathaniel Hawthorne gothic novel The House of Seven Gables gets a blu-ray release. The 1951 Universal horror film The Strange Door which stars Charles Laughton and Boris Karloff is also getting a blu-ray edition this week. Solid performance from Kino this week.
The 1957 Elia Kazan drama A Face in the Crowd which stars Andy Griffith also gets a blu-ray release this week and will feature its newly restored 4K transfer and a couple of interviews.
Here is what is coming out on blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD This week
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Best Buy Exclusive SteelBook / 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital HD)
Disney / Buena Vista
Street Date: April 23, 2019
As Steve Rogers struggles to embrace his role in the modern world, he teams up with a fellow Avenger and S.H.I.E.L.D agent, Black Widow, to battle a new threat from history: an assassin known as the Winter Soldier.
Blu-ray Details:
- On the Front Line, An Inside Look at Captain America’s Battlegrounds
- On Set with Anthony Mackie: Cut the Check!
- Steve Roger’s Notebook’
- Audio Commentary with Director’s Anthony and Joe Russo and screenwriters
- Gag Reel
- Deleted Scenes
Captain America: Civil War (Best Buy Exclusive SteelBook / 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital HD)
Disney / Buena Vista
Street Date: April 23, 2019
Political involvement in the Avengers' affairs causes a rift between Captain America and Iron Man.
Blu-ray Details:
- United We Stand, Divided We Fall – The Making of Captain America: Civil War – Part 1 & 2
- Captain America: The Road to Civil War
- Iron Man: The Road to Civil War
- Audio Commentary with Director’s Anthony and Joe Russo and the screenwriters
- Gag Reel
- Deleted & Extended Scenes
The Witch (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital Copy)
Lionsgate
Street Date: April 23, 2019
New England, 1630: William and Katherine lead a devout Christian life with their five children, homesteading on the edge of an impassible wilderness. When their newborn son mysteriously vanishes and their crops fail, the family begins to turn on one another. The Witch is a chilling portrait of a family unraveling within their own fears and anxieties, leaving them prey to an inescapable evil.
Special Features:
- Dolby Vision HDR Presentation of the film
- Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
- "The Witch: A Primal Folklore" Featurette
- Salem Panel Q&A
- Design Gallery
- Audio Commentary with Director Robert Eggers
A Face in the Crowd (Blu-ray)
Criterion
Street Date: April 23, 2019
A Face in the Crowd chronicles the rise and fall of Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes (Andy Griffith), a boisterous entertainer discovered in an Arkansas drunk tank by Marcia Jeffries (Patricia Neal), a local radio producer with ambitions of her own. His charisma and cunning soon shoot him to the heights of television stardom and political demagoguery, forcing Marcia to grapple with the manipulative, reactionary monster she has created. Directed by Elia Kazan from a screenplay by Budd Schulberg, this incisive satire features an extraordinary debut screen performance by Griffith, who brandishes his charm in an uncharacteristically sinister role. Though the film was a flop on its initial release, subsequent generations have marveled at its eerily prescient diagnosis of the toxic intimacy between media and politics in American life.
Special Features:
- New, restored 4K transfer with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- New interview with Ron Briley, author of The Ambivalent Legacy of Elia Kazan
- New interview with Andy Griffith biographer Evan Dalton Smith
- Facing the Past, a 2005 documentary featuring actors Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, and Anthony Franciosa; screenwriter Budd Schulberg; and film scholars Leo Braudy and Jeff Young
- Trailer
- PLUS: An essay by critic April Wolfe and a 1957 New York Times Magazine profile of Andy Griffith
Destroyer (Blu-ray)
20th Century Fox
Street Date: April 23, 2019
Five cities. Five taxicabs. A multitude of strangers in the night. Jim Jarmusch assembled an extraordinary international cast of actors (including Gena Rowlands, Winona Ryder, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Beatrice Dalle, and Roberto Benigni) for this quintet of transitory tales of urban displacement and existential angst, all staged as encounters between cabbies and their fares. Spanning time zones, continents, and languages, Night on Earth winds its course through scenes of uproarious comedy, nocturnal poetry, and somber fatalism, set to a moody soundtrack by Tom Waits. Jarmusch's lovingly askew view of humanity from the passenger seat makes for one of his most charming and beloved films, a freewheeling showcase for the cosmopolitan range of his imagination.
Special Features:
- High-definition digital restoration, supervised and approved by director Jim Jarmusch, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- Selected-scene commentary from 2007 featuring director of photography Frederick Elmes and location sound mixer Drew Kunin
- Q&A with Jarmusch from 2007, in which he responds to questions sent in by fans
- Belgian television interview with Jarmusch from 1992
- PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by authors and critics Thom Andersen, Paul Auster, Bernard Eisenschitz, Goffredo Fofi, and Peter von Bagh, and the lyrics to Tom Waits's original songs from the film
Escape Room (Blu-ray + DVD + Digital HD)
Sony
Street Date: April 23, 2019
What surgeons thought to be a tumor growing on the neck of patient Karen Tandy (Susan Strasberg) is actually a fetus growing at an abnormally accelerated rate. But when Karen reaches out to former lover and phony psychic Harry Erskine (Tony Curtis), she discovers that she is possessed by the reincarnation of a 400-year-old Native American demon. Now with the help of a modern-day medicine man (Michael Ansara), Erskine must survive this ancient evil's rampage of shocking violence and forever destroy the enraged beast known as The Manitou.
Special Features:
- Brand new 4K remaster of the film
- New Restored Stereo Soundtrack
- New interview with author Graham Masterson
- New Producing Girdler – an interview with executive producer David Sheldon
- New Audio Commentary with film historian Troy Howarth
- Theatrical Trailer
- TV Spots
- Still Gallery
The Land Unknown (Blu-ray)
Kino Lorber
Street Date: April 23, 2019
Old school magic meets the modern world in the epic adventure THE KID WHO WOULD BE KING. Alex (Ashbourne Serkis) thinks he's just another nobody, until he stumbles upon the mythical Sword in the Stone, Excalibur. Now, he must unite his friends and enemies into a band of knights and, together with the legendary wizard Merlin (Stewart), take on the wicked enchantress Morgana (Ferguson). With the future at stake, Alex must become the great leader he never dreamed he could be.
Special Features:
- Deleted Scenes
- Origins of a King
- Young Knights
- Hair, Makeup & Costume Tests
- Merlin's Magic (x4)
- Knight School
- The Two Merlins
- Meet Morgana
- Movie Magic
- Be the King", Lay Lay Music Video
The House of Seven Gables (Blu-ray)
Kino Lorber
Street Date: April 23, 2019
Synopsis:
Something horrible is happening at the old house on Mill Road. A series of ghastly accidents has occurred near the site where a witch drowned centuries earlier. But when an alcoholic minister and his family move into the cursed residence, an idealistic young priest (James Houghton) and a cynical police detective (Albert Salmi) start their own investigation into the unexplained violence. Has the daughter of Satan returned for a rampage of vengeance? Will the laws of the Church be strong enough to cast out this demon? And if evil has truly found a new home, is the entire neighborhood headed straight to hell?
Special Features:
- NEW 2K Scan From The Original Film Elements
- NEW That Crazy Witchcraft – An Interview With Director James Roberson
- NEW Lake Of Fire – An Interview With Actor James Houghton
- Original Theatrical Trailer
- Original TV Spot
I Spit on Your Grave: Deja Vu (Blu-ray)
Deja Vu Llc
Street Date: April 23, 2019
Synopsis: The story of two people who got married, met and then fell in love. Green Card lights up the screen with its irresistible charm, lighthearted humor and critical acclaim. The fun starts when two strangers, Andie MacDowell (Unstrung Heroes) and Gérard Depardieu (My Father the Hero), agree to a marriage of convenience—thinking it's going to be hassle-free. She'll get to live in the apartment of her dreams; he'll get a "green card" to live in the U.S. But before they know it, the two opposites encounter far more difficulties than most married couples could ever imagine—and worse yet, this mismatched twosome just might be falling in love.
Special Features:
Scared Stiff (Blu-ray)
Arrow
Street Date: April 23, 2019
The vampire Caleb Croft has awakened from his unholy slumber — with an insatiable lust for blood and the pleasures of the flesh. A brutal attack on a pair of lovers allows for his desire to be temporarily fulfilled ... but his unspeakable acts leave the woman pregnant with his child. Ignoring all advice, she gives birth to the progeny of their unwanted union: James — who will only drink blood from his mother's breast. As James matures, he learns of his father's true nature, and sets out to destroy him.
Special Features:
The Strange Door (Blu-ray)
Kino Lorber
Street Date: April 23, 2019
Reformed outlaw Glyn McLyntock (James Stewart) has become a guide for farmers headed to Oregon. When he rescues thief Emerson Cole (Arthur Kennedy) from execution, Cole joins him on the journey. Once the settlers arrive, they discover that a trader who was supposed to send them provisions is now trying to scam them. After McLyntock and Cole travel to Portland to forcibly retrieve the supplies, Cole betrays McLyntock and steals the goods himself. McLyntock pursues, ready for battle.
Special Features:
- NEW Audio Commentary by Film Historian Toby Roan
- Theatrical Trailer
And now for our MOST WANTED ON BLU-RAY AND 4K for the week of April 23, 2019
Alien (40th Anniversary Edition / 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital HD)
20th Century Fox
Street Date: April 23, 2019
In the film that birthed the wildly successful ALIEN franchise, the crew of the deep space tug Nostromo awaken from stasis during a voyage home to Earth when their ship's computer detects what is believed to be an alien distress signal coming from the desolate nearby moon, LV-426. While investigating, one of the crew, Kane (John Hurt), is attacked by an alien creature that latches to his face and he is rushed back to the Nostromo to receive medical treatment. Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), the ship's warrant officer, advises against Kane's return due to quarantine regulations – but her orders are ignored by Ash (Ian Holm), bringing the Nostromo under threat from a mysterious, extraterrestrial apex predator with violent and lethal survival instincts.
Special Features:
- Bradn new 4K restoration of the film, completed in 2018 by 20th Century Fox, supervised by Ridley Scott and Pam Dery, with the 4K scans done at Efilm.
- Theatrical Version (1979)
- Director's Cut (2003)
- 2003 Audio Commentary by Ridley Scott and the Cast & Crew
- 1999 Audio Commentary by Ridley Scott (1979 Theatrical Version Only)
- Final Theatrical Isolated Score – Dolby Digital 5.1 (1979 Theatrical Version Only)
- Composer's Original Isolated Score – Dolby Digital 5.1 (1979 Theatrical Version Only)
- Deleted Scenes
